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tv   The Last Word  MSNBC  December 13, 2012 7:00pm-8:00pm PST

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he told uses threats have been narrowed down to a couple of cell phones. that is new information tonight. we are watching this one closely and we will keep you posted. it is time for the last word. have a great night. >> okay massachusetts, are you ready for another scott brown senate campaign? >> there are so many things we need to get done. >> today i made the decision. >> withdrawing her own name. >> not to continue to be considered. >> she had to remove her name. >> to be the next secretary of state. >> to be the best thing for our country. >> i don't believe she deserves
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to be promoted. >> i don't trust her. >> this is not going to help republicans at all. >> there are so many things we need to get done. >> most of you want compromise. >> the two sides are talking. >> let's get real. >> let really get real. >> tensions in washington are nearing critical mass. >> here we are at the 11th hour. >> 18 days. >> the republicans sent a letter. >> we made a reasonable offer. >> it is this issue spending. >> let's all take a deep breath. >> voters trust the president to handle negotiation. >> are we back to square one? >> here we are again. >> the president is not serious about cutting spending. >> it doesn't make seps. >> but to give a tax cut to the
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wealthiest people. >> i have no idea. >> we have clarity on that. >> today after un ambassador susan rice withdraw her bid for secretary of state. john kerry got lesser to becoming secretary of state. >> tonight there were two people on the list two minus one is one. >> in other words, senator john kerry is virtually certain to be nominated secretary of state. here is senator kerry tonight. >> and i'm going to continue to do my work. >> senator kerry's statement red are in part as someone who was weathered my share of political attacks and understands how
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difficult politics can be. >> i know that she will continue to serve with great distinction and passion. >> today i made the decision that it was the best thing for our country, for the american people that i not continue to be considered by the president for a nomination of secretary of state. i didn't want to see a process that was very prolonged and distracting and disruptive. because there are so many things we need to get done as a country. >> ambassador rice said this. >> did you want the job? >> i would have been very honored to serve in that job. yes, sure. how can you not want to serve at the highest possible level? >> republican senators have
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reserve theed the nomination but they have welcomed the possible nomination of senator john kerry the current chairman of the committee that holds the hearings for the secretary of state. >> i think it works in his favor, but i love to hear him make his case. but i don't have anything in his background like this tragedy in benghazi that would make me want to examine the whole situation. >> i think john kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be confirmed by his colleagues. >> if the president wants an easy confirm nation hearing. >> massachusetts would have to hold a special election to fill his seat. scott brown lost his race to
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elizabeth warren. >> during his farewell speech yestarerday yesterday. >> victory and defeat is temporary. >> depending on what happens and where we go, all of us may meet again. >> after learning about ambassador rice's withdraw the party tweeted bring it on hash tag massachusetts senates. the democrats got cute when john kerry was running for senate. they created this thing where you have to have an erosion. and then 150 days or somewhere you have this election. and so, it looks like the democrats feel confident enough that they can hold on to the seat. >> oops. here comes scott brown again. i think this is so irritating.
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you have the republican members of the senate deciding who the next secretary of state is. rather than admitting who the call is. you know washington is that senators prefer other senators and they would rather have a sweet deal. democrats say they are confident they can win another special election. but the whole thing smells. >> the last time i heard a confirmation hearing. >> he is the chairman of the committee that confirms the treasury secretary okay? and so we had to run the hearing even though the chairman is done there as the witness. bob dole said why don't we vote before the hearing started? >> the whole thing has his bros
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helping bros grossness to it. john kerry would be great and is a member of the same club. the other thing about the story that is jaw dropping is here is someone who has a record serving the government jun none of whic came to bear on the secretary of state. her record crafting africa policy for much of the krin ton years which was subject to critiq critique, none of it had anything to do with anything except the base scalp. and she was attacked for what she said on a tv talkshow by people all of whom have lied on talkshows at certain points. saying your entire career comes down to his one exchange on
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television. and an attack by the guy who does nothing else but go on sunday talkshows. i guess he is an expert of how you do it right. she was not in super advisory capacity over. she was giving the talking points like john mccain does when he goes on sunday talkshows. it was so small but this is why people hate washington. >> here is what we don't know. i think we can assume there were two names on the list. and what we don't know is in a world with no static, what was president obama's first choice? in this environment, assuming the president's choice was john kerry, not by default, how would
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you handle it? >> you would ask susan rice to publicly withdraw from consideration rather than appear to reject her. there is a lot of reporting right now which is usually what happens. there is more communication. that this wasn't something done freelance. it was honest. of course i wanted the job. it is secretary of the state. let's not pretend that i didn't want the job. the question to me is, how much does the secretary of state affect u.s. foreign policy and diploemsy. but we never have gotten to any
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of that and it is the stupidity of our conversation and on foreign policy, no one wants to talk about the stuff that is happening. >> on the scott brown campaign, he is up against something tough. he has expressed an interest in this. i in vided him on the show tonight. he has cash on hand for his campaign. $3,142,000. scott brown has $464,000. i don't believe scott brown can catch up. i don't believe he can appeal to the state of massachusetts statewide the way ed marke can.
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and in this time, yes, he just ran and you can argue he still has infrastructure in place. b but when he ran against them, if marke doesn't run, then he don't have a bet. when you look ahead to the governor's race, in massachusetts. which is the our office, and it is not a super strong field and the fact that there is not a hugely strong field, has been the background sub text of this fight. so i agree with you. i don't think scott brown is anything but a sure bet. but at the same time, it is not clear if there is something formidable. >> thank you for joining me tonight. coming up.
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a republican congressman will join me to talk about what happens if we do know through the fiscal curb. and later, a last word exclusive. the warrants of jordon davis shot and killed in florida last month.
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>> in the rewrite, how mean is grow ver norqu iflt st? question?
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darrell hasn't been able to visit his mom back east in a long time. [ mom ] things are sometimes a little tight. i wasn't able to go to the wedding. [ emily jo ] since darrell couldn't get home, we decided to bring home to him and then just gave him a little bit of help finding his way. ♪ [ laughs ] [ applause ] i love you. i love you. [ male announcer ] get together at the rekindle share event. buy one holiday drink, get one free this thursday through sunday. president obama met with john boehner. 69% support raising taxes on
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incomes over $250,000. 28% oppose it. 52% support raising taxed on $250,000. 2/3 of independent voters but being the leader of the poll denying party isn't always easy. >> could you describe how difficult it is to craft a deal that your conference will support while not jeopardizing your job at speaker? >> i'm not concerned about my job. i'm concerned about doing the right thing for our kids and grand kids. >> we still believe that a big deal is possible. in case of emergency the house should break a glass that the house speaker ought to allow
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republicans to deal with a chunk of the fiscal cliff. >> form eer democratic speaker giving public seminared even when the speaker of the house doesn't like the bill. >> they can bring a bill to the floor that doesn't have the majority but has everybody onboard. canp bring a bill to the floor that the republicans don't have to vote for. so it is tough. but you have to do it. so is the point that you don't want to put your members on the spot figure it out. we did. figure it out and then go forward and continue to debate the issue. senator paul has this suggestion
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for how to get the tax increase passed in the house. >> my suggestion to them has been i think that we should put forward that we are for. i think we should encourage those in the house to vote present. >> joining me now is the chairman of the house sub committee. thank you for joining me tonight. >> so you have a tough situation here. what do you make of nancy pelosi's advice which is every now and again something comes along but you put it on the floor and you let it get the support of the party and you let the bill pass? >> one way to do it, i think what i would like to do is
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suggest if the taxes do go up and you know this because probably not anybody better on television, you served as the chief of staff in the senate, i know you know numbers well, this is not going to solve our problem. i liked at the $30 billion number for ten years. the problem with it is. it only covers ten stays of the deficit in november of this year. so it is spending. the other way to raise revenue is getting our people back to work. i looked at the deficit and we saw our unemployment rate drop. we have created 150 tho,000 jobr month. if we create 150,000 jobs per
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month for the next three years it is going to take that to get our rate down to 6%. we should be concentrating getting our people back to work. because you raise taxes, it means if they put a number on it, small businesses will make some changes. other tax increases haven't done that, but that is a way to raise revenue. >> let's the go up to new year's eve and off the cliff. it is january first and second. and john boehner convenes an emergency session of the house. and the pro poposal is to cut ts on everything except the two top income tax brackets. what would happen on a vote in the house in the first week of
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january to cut taxes? >> i think i would bring that bill and i would bring a second bill. not to let people know we are extending the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. >> to get to where we would be in the first week of january. the rates would go up. and so, what the president and what the democrats would want to do is say let's get them all except the top two. why not send two bills out on the floor one that cuts them all that would not pass with democratic votes and put the other one up there that would cut them all except the top two. >> i think you are right. i talked to senator about that. we are still talking about tax
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increases. we need to talk about what we are going to do. you have heard numbers. it doesn't put a dent in the deficit. we have to stop the trillion deficits. it would be an argument against the tax. when is the last time that you voted for something in cag that solved everything? >> never. >> congressman thank you very, very much for joining us tonight. >> coming up, the comedy of grow ver nor kwist. he makes jokes about war and grape. yeah, he does. in his losing attempts to prevent members of congress from violating the anti-tax pledge. and the parents of the unarmed black florida teen shot and killed last month because the music in his car was too loud.
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one million people now have concealed carry permits for guns in the state of florida. last month a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed after a person thought that the teen was playing music too loud in his car. the parents of jordan davis will
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america's gun culture. here is the press release that he issued yesterday in which he proudly told the world that florida concealed weapon and firearm program is one million strong. i license he believed included the right to shoot and kill 17-year-old jordan davis which he did. davis was sitting in the car. jordan and the kids in the car had the music up very loud. he told them to turn down the music and so michael dunn
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started shooting. he firedate bullets. michael dunn fled the scene and did not report the incident to police. thanks to an eyewitness who caught his license plate. the next day police caught him. today he was indicted for murder and attempted murder in the first degree. joining me the parents of jordan davis. lucia, you got that phone call. ron found out first and called you, what was your feeling?
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what happened to you when you got that call? >> it just, when i happened to come up in the bedroom and i saw my phone light up and i saw that it was ron. i knew it had to do with jordan. i knew 11:00 at night, there would be no other reason why he would be calling. and when i picked up the phone and he said where is earl get earl. and i knew that it had to do with jordan. i knew something was terply, terribly wrong. and i think i knew in my spirit, i knew that he was gone.
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i felt that. >> ron, dow think that it was in your voice when you made that call. i can't imagine having to make that call to the mother of this child that you both just lost. >> when i cam back from the hospital from seeing him. that it was my child in the hospital that passed. walking up to my front door thinking i can tell my wife jordan's step mother first of all and going through the reaction and then the realization to the both of us that we have to make that call to jordan's mother. and the first thing i thought about was to get her cousin who was like a brother to her earl to stand with her and make sure
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she was sitting down. and she kept saying why do you want earl. why do you need to speak to earl. she said is something wrong with jordan. at that time i did tell her that jordan had been shot and he didn't survive. >> lucia and ron. when the nation was watching the travon martin story, we thought wow, that could have been wow, that could have been anyone's child. did it create in following that story to whatever extent you did, an extra sensation of worry about jordan? without a doubt. underneath that could have been dor dan. and so when you hear a story so
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tragically, it does put a sense of fear in you. you know you can't watch your child every moment of the day. you want to watch over them but you know that is not always possible. and there are dangers and people out there and sometimes you can't protect them from. and sometimes it makes you feel helpless. >> ron, african-american parents have had to have the conversation with teenaged boys that it is different for them out there. >> right. jordan never believed it was different. as i was raised as a child in new york city from queens new york right here. i never had that problem. i was a child of the 60s and 70s. there was a lot of love and
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neighbors when you did something bad, your mother and father knew about it before you got home because the neighbors they told on you and they hoped protect you. he said dad, i have a lot of friends. all of my friends they are all colors. boss knee yan. irish you name it. i'm not going to let things that happened in america make me be something that i'm not. he was the type of child that was raised to be everything. we didn't raise him to have a great fear. we never did. >> in florida there seem to be two things that come together. determination. state government carrying these loaded weapons and this stand your ground law. the notion that there comes a
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moment where you have a right to pull a trigger and it is up to citizens to pull that trigger. it seems that as much as anything else that is where this problem arises and in this case this is a white shooter of a black teen-ager. >> um, that is the case. mr. dunn is white and my son is black. we are not going to concentrate on that. there needs to be an amendment to the stand your ground laws. there needs to be
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responsibility. you need to understand the way in which you can bear arms and protect yourself. so it is not a black whitish it is a nation issue. people are operating in fear and afraid to walk out of homes. and i know that is not what god intended for our country. i know that, we know that. >> it is an american problem but here are these two now sadly well-known cases in florida. travon martin and now your son. florida seem to have a special problem here. we have big following in florida with the nra i can see that. looking at their website you know, and everyone looks at florida as far as concealed weapon permits i think it has tripled over the last few years.
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i know the nra has over four million members. people want to bear arms. i upt stand that. people want to have concealed weapons now. when i say it is a problem not just the state of florida. i see that as a problem states are operating as individual countries. when you go to europe, you know, the size is around the same but you see each state size is a country in europe. we are operating like a country. each state if colorado wants marijuana then they goat et it. if florida wants to have guns. was i was growing up i noticed that the federal government stepped in more. the lawmakers were accountable.
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if you went too mar in yofar in state the federal government slapped you back a little bit. when president obama came into arizona he got a stern talking to. and he's a chief of the country and he has a finger in his face. we have to have the respect for our leaders. the best that we can do is get t the stand your ground laurie peeled. that is why we want to repeal that. >> lucia and ron and your lawyer, john phillips. thank you for coming here and telling the story. i'm very, very sorry that you are sitting here tonight telling the story that you have to tell.
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you might not get his jokes especially the one about rape. and later, in the senate. santa claus is a democrat. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles
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never raise taxes except maybe this one time, he is getting desperate and mean. he has always been mean but he is getting des traperate now. >> we have lots of things obama claim claims to before. >> he has controlled the republicans in the house and senate so long, that he now thinks that he is one of them. that is one desperate and delusional anti-tax fanatic. we, the republicans in the house and senate will continue to get the resolution out. obama will be on a short leash fiscally speaking over the next
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four years. >> very short leash is a common phrase so i don't want to think that he deliberately used that phrase to create the imagery as a dog or slave. but he specializes in vicious hate speech against anyone who takes a responsible approach to f financing the federal government. i'm sorry some say that he is not above suspicious on that phrase about the short leash. >> obama will be on a short leash fiscally speaking over the next four years. he is not going to have any fun at all. he may blow up small countries he can't pronounce. >> blow up small countries he can't pronounce. he never once criticized the
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pronounceiation skills of george w. bush or form a sentence. >> there is an old saying in tennessee. i know it is in texas that says fool me once, same on -- same n shame on you. fool me, you can't get fooled again. >> grover never once criticized george w. bush for being inarticulate. president obama may be the only president in his life time possibly the only president in american history for whom there are no small countries he can't pronouns and if he is moved to joke about blowing up small countries why did he not find
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something funny in his heros of grenada. because george w. bush was a tax cutter. so he didn't hate him. what does he think of the fiscal cliff crisis? >> this fight, on the fiscal cliff is a sqirmish. >> when you are losing a big fight the fight of your life, pretend it is not important at all. that is now his performance choice as he sees his prejudile becoming meaningless. as you can tell, from what you saw, he thinks he is a clever boy. very clever he is the kind of clever republican boy with no
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sympathies for any hardship he himself has not experiences and seems to have experienced none and thinks he can make jokes about blowing up small countries. he never considered joining the military himself. so people being killed in war and bodies being blown up that is a joke for him. he doesn't say those things because he is losing or desperate. because he is so often mean and inhumane. that is what allows him to be an, anti-tax fanatic. he cares about no one that he does not know or is not related to. he does not believe in community or a shared responsibility. he thinks that is communism.
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he does not care about one person on staten island tonight who is homeless. he thinks they should fend for shem l themselves. he takes so much delight in himself. he once told the denver post bipartisanship is another name for date rape. yes, he thinks rape is something to joke about to make a political point and he is so blind to how uncool that is that he does it publicly. that is how out of touch with the human experience he is. bipartisanship is another name or date rape. spoken like a truly clueless republican who thinks he doesn't know anything who has
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experienced date rape. i'm sure grover is in some ways a good person and i know in some ways he is not. we all have things to apologize for. but you have a daughter, and i can promise you the following two things are going to happen. one, she is going to grow up to unfortunately know someone in high school or college or later who experiences the tragedy the crime of date rape. and two, she is eventually somewhere on the internet going to come across her dad making a joke about date rape bipartisanship is another name for date rape.
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public policy polling which has one of the most accurate polling records has found that 44% believe that santa is a democrat while 28% say that he is a republican. in the senate there is no doubt that santa is a democrat.
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al franken organized the secret santa exchange. they put their differences aside and ate fruit cake and drank egg nog and there was a $10 limit on gifts. senator franken received a vhs copy of the movie "tunnel vision". and north carol democrat received the took "1001 guaarde you should see before you die". and he received a batman snuggie. all right. you have grown out of yours right? >> i brought you a harley davidson snuggie. so, it turns out. in the senate. santa is not only a democrat he
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is also jewish. senator franken is bringing peace and joy to the senate. reform can't be far behind. >> hanukkah harry i know was a democrat. no, he is a great force because he is trying to get the senators together. there is a lot of talk about that. he is clearly on the side of the reform issues of changing the way the senate works. and there is this filibuster reform is a hard thing to step up and do. if you are a senator who has been in the minority that is when you love the rules as they are now. that is when 41 of you can stop. the democrats can have enough
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people who life life and knew how much they needed. and the rules are reluctant. this fight is between lonn logi power. the fights are about pro democracy. but when you look at how the senate works. it is as an individual you have more power to hold and use it as a denice to get what you want. that is why senator murkly is trying to force people to get up and talk. at least make it harder to do and thus subject to less abuse. but there are several democrats, levin, hawaii and o